In short
- Escrow removes the question of who goes first.
- Funded money is committed but not the freelancer's until the work is approved.
- Released money clears before it can be withdrawn, because card payments are reversible.
- A released milestone cannot be disputed, so release deliberately.
Freelance work has an old problem: somebody has to go first. The freelancer who starts unpaid risks working for nothing; the client who pays upfront risks paying for nothing. Escrow removes the question by putting the money somewhere neither side controls until the work is done.
The sequence
- 1The client funds a milestone. The money leaves their card and is held against that stage of work. It is not the freelancer's yet.
- 2The freelancer works and submits. They can see the money is committed before they start, which is the point.
- 3The client reviews. They approve, or request revisions with notes on what is missing.
- 4Approval releases the money. Either straight away or after a short review window, depending on how the milestone is set up.
- 5Released money clears. It sits for a period before it can be withdrawn.
- 6The freelancer withdraws. To a verified payout method, minus a flat withdrawal fee, above a minimum amount.
On hourly contracts the same idea runs weekly: the client funds the coming week up to an agreed hour limit, the freelancer logs hours in a work diary, the client approves them at the end of the week, and approved hours are paid from that funding. Anything unused goes back to the client.
What escrow protects, for each side
| The freelancer gets | The client gets | |
|---|---|---|
| Before work | Proof the money exists and is committed | No money handed to a stranger |
| During work | A funded stage to work against | Work in progress they have not paid out for |
| At approval | Payment triggered by approval, not by goodwill | The right to ask for revisions first |
| If it goes wrong | A dispute while funds are still held | A dispute while funds are still held |
The parts that surprise people
Funded is not paid
Freelancers sometimes read "funded" as "earned". It means the client has committed the money and cannot spend it elsewhere. It becomes yours on approval.
Released is not withdrawable yet
Released money clears for a period before you can take it out. This is not a cash-flow trick: card payments can be reversed weeks after they are made, and paying out instantly on money that can still be pulled back would mean the platform chasing freelancers for funds already spent. The clearance period is shown on your earnings page, and how and when you get paid explains it in full.
Silence eventually approves
If a client goes quiet after work is submitted, the milestone auto-approves after a set period. Without that, an inattentive client could hold finished work indefinitely. It does not apply while a dispute is open.
Instant release ends the dispute window
What it costs
Clients pay an escrow handling fee when they fund work and a one-time contract initiation fee per contract. Both are added on top of the amount funded rather than taken out of it, so the freelancer's side is not reduced by them, and both are itemised before the client confirms. Freelancers pay commission on release, at a rate that depends on the engagement type and membership. Current rates are on the pricing page.
When something goes wrong
While a milestone is funded, either side can open a dispute. The money freezes where it is, auto-release stops, and both sides submit what they have: the brief, the messages, the deliverables. Mediation ends in one of a small number of outcomes: the funds released to the freelancer, refunded to the client, or split.
Two habits make disputes rarer and easier: keep the conversation and the files on the platform, where they form the record, and keep milestones small enough that a disagreement is about one stage rather than a whole project. Trust and safety covers the wider protections.
What escrow does not do
- It does not judge quality in advance. It holds money; people still have to agree what good means.
- It does not cover work paid for outside the platform. Money sent directly is not in escrow and cannot be recovered through a dispute.
- It does not protect against a vague brief. Most disputes are scope arguments wearing a payment costume.
- It does not make a bad hire good. It limits what a bad hire costs.
Who holds the money during escrow?
The platform holds the funded amount against that milestone. The client cannot take it back unilaterally and the freelancer cannot draw it before approval; it is released when the work is approved, or according to the outcome of a dispute.
When exactly does a freelancer get paid?
On approval the money is released to their wallet, immediately or after a short review window. It then clears for a period before it can be withdrawn. Both timings are shown in the product rather than fixed in this guide, because they are configurable.
Can a client cancel a funded milestone?
Not unilaterally once work is underway. Unstarted work can be ended by agreement, and where the two sides cannot agree, the dispute process decides what happens to the funds.
Is escrow worth it for small jobs?
It is most useful on first contracts, at any size, because that is where neither side has a reason to trust the other. For repeat clients, the same mechanism just runs quietly in the background.